Islamabad court deletes “terrorist states” line from Mazari-Chattha verdict

An Islamabad court ordered the removal of a contentious paragraph referring to “terrorist states” from a written verdict that convicted lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha in a case linked to controversial tweets.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka said the disputed line had been included due to a clerical mistake and did not rest on any statutory basis, judicial precedent, executive notification, international instrument, or authoritative reference. The court described the sentence as vague and ambiguous and directed that it be deleted from the judgment.

The order also cited an explanation attributed to the stenographer, stating that the sentence had been removed during corrections but was mistakenly inserted again at the time of final printing, and that the error was made in good faith.

The paragraph in question had appeared as a later section of the verdict and referenced four countries as being designated “terrorist states.” A day earlier, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi publicly rejected that characterization, saying such a category does not exist in United Nations usage or under international law and that Pakistan does not endorse the judge’s observation.